Law must evolve from 'fortress to forum' to make it more accessible: CJI Surya Kant

Jodhpur: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Saturday said that "law cannot remain a fortress erected to protect society from arbitrariness", and called on the young lawyers to make it a "forum" where differences are debated, rights articulated and power is reasoned with.

Kant, during his address -- "From Fortress to Forum: Law in an Unfinished Republic" -- at the 18th Convocation of National Law University here, urged the professionals to see law not as a closed citadel but as a living, evolving public space.

The CJI invoked the Mehrangarh Fort as a powerful metaphor for the historical journey of law.

"A fortress is built to defend, to guard against disorder and uncertainty. In its earliest conception, law resembled such a structure, erected to protect society from arbitrariness and chaos," he said.

"But in a constitutional democracy, he said, law cannot remain a fortress alone. It must transform into a forum where differences are debated, rights articulated and power reasoned with," he added.

Kant reiterated that the shift, from fortress to forum, captures not only the evolution of legal systems but also the responsibility awaiting the graduating class.

The CJI cautioned students against viewing law as a finished product. Unlike the settled principles of certain sciences, law admits no finality.

Quoting Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, he reminded that the life of the law has not been logic but experience.

Law evolves because society evolves, and its legitimacy depends on its ability to engage with change, he added.

Tracing this to history, he referred to the 'Magna Carta' as an early assertion that power must answer to law.

"What began as a limited safeguard against arbitrary imprisonment eventually expanded into doctrines of due process, equality and dignity," he asserted.

In India, he noted, Article 14 of the Constitution, as a guarantee of equality before the law, has similarly developed from a formal assurance into a dynamic instrument of substantive fairness.

The CJI warned, "Law, having once liberated, may distance itself again, wrapped in jargon and complexity, accessible only to a privileged few."

He urged the young lawyers to "resist rebuilding a fortress of sophistication, and not to make the law arcane, but intelligible; not to narrow the forum, but to widen it."

In his concluding remarks, he turned to the University, praising its intellectual rigour and the accomplishments of its alumni across the Bar, academia, public service and the judiciary.

He said, "Excellence must not become exclusion".

"As the graduating class steps into professional life, they must carry forward not merely degrees, but a commitment to ensuring that law in India remains an open forum in an unfinished Republic," he asserted.